First Supercomputer Cray-1 Module Board - Display Card
First Supercomputer Cray-1 Module Board - Display Card
"There's something about the speed of light; It's just hard to get around." ~ Seymour Cray
This display card includes a small section of an original Cray-1 Module Board. Designed by the genius engineer Seymour Cray, the board was originally part of the Cray-1 Supercomputer installed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Module board sections measure around 1 cm long.
LEAD WARNING: PCB Module board sections do contain lead as part of their manufacturing process. Module board sections should be handled with care and only while wearing gloves.
Lead is known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.
A Piece of Computer History
The board section attached to this card display was originally part of the Cray-1 Supercomputer installed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Introduced in 1975, the complete Cray-1 weighed 5.5 tons and was capable of 80 million floating-point operations per second.
Each display comes with a piece of the Cray-1 Supercomputer Module Board attached to an information display card with details about the machine and the Mini Museum Seal of Authenticity. It is a fantastic collector's item for anyone with an interest in computer history and technology!
4x3" Certificate of Authenticity
Front of the Card
Back of the Card
📸 Cray-1 from the from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), 1983.
About Seymour Cray and the Cray-1
Seymour Cray was a legend in the world of early digital computers. He was also a veteran of past attempts to create large supercomputers: "If you work in a large corporation it is very hard to keep on one track for 4-5 years. So, I think that building large computers should be done with the fewest possible people. One is perfect, but it can't quite work with one. The next best thing is about 12."
Eschewing the methods of the past, Cray created a new kind of supercomputer company using just four main principles: simplicity, size, discipline, and cooling.
📸 A Cray-1 at the Magnetic Fusion Energy Computer Center, 1978
A Revolutionary New Design
Earlier attempts to create a viable supercomputer involved the use of incredibly complex integrated circuits. The Cray-1 used just three different types of integrated circuits across the entire machine, vastly simplifying the architecture. For cooling, freon circulated through stainless steel tubing bonded between vertical wedges of aluminum fitted between the stacks of circuit boards.
Cray's innovations yielded a machine that was so advanced that a bidding war ensued for the first machine off the line. This made the Cray-1 the first commercially successful supercomputer and launched the legend that became Cray Research.
📸 Cray-1 cabinet design from Seymour Cray's 1978 Patent
Engineered to Perfection
The iconic look of the Cray-1 is more than just 1970s aesthetics at play. Everything was thought through to provide advantages in performance.
The columnar design of the cabinet allowed Cray to minimize the amount of wiring between processing stacks, while the cushions ringing the unit covered the enormous power supplies at the base of each tower.
Want to see more of the original machine's design? Check out the 1976 system brochure here.
Additionally, you can check out a talk given by Seymour Cray discussing the Cray-1 and the field of computers.
📸 Seymour Cray and the Cray-1
The Eccentric Maverick
Fitting for such a revolutionary machine, Cray-1’s namesake was a legend in the world of early digital computers. A code-breaking veteran of World War Two, Seymour Cray worked for several prestigious computer firms, eventually founding Control Data Corporation in 1957. In this article, we take an even deeper dive into Mr. Cray's backstory and the history of the Cray-1.
Further Reading
Cray, Seymour. Live presentation at Los Alamos National Lab (LANL), 1976. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtOA1vuoDgQ
Murray, Charles J., and Arthur L. Norberg. The supermen: the story of Seymour Cray and the technical wizards behind the supercomputer. Wiley, 1997.
Igarashi, Yoshihide, et al. Computing: A historical and technical perspective. CRC Press, 2014.
